Spring Cleaning

While it is certainly March, I’m not sure if that constitutes “Spring” but I was strapped for a post title this afternoon. You’ll live, right?

I assume that by reading this you are aware of the many social media outlets I frequent. If you didn’t know, there’s a nifty set of icons on the sidebar of this blog for you to survey. Each of those links, each of those networks offers a unique opportunity to connect with people of every interest and personality. I understand that not everyone that follows me on Twitter has me in a Google+ Circle. Not every person that is a friend on Facebook reads this blog. It’s a complex web of interconnected awesome that is a genuine microcosm for how the Internet works. We’re all connected, somehow. It is with that sense of connectedness that I decided to do a little “spring cleaning” (eh?! see what I did there?) of my various web sites/presences/attempts at vanity.

First and foremost, I’ve dusted off the Facebook page for this blog. I set it up a while ago and didn’t really give it an honest college try. If you go there now you’ll see a significant gap in content. I don’t plan on back-filling posts, simply because there are far too many. But I do plan on using that page as the primary jump off to linking my posts on Facebook. Not every post will end up on my personal feed but if you want to start on Facebook to see what I’m writing, or more appropriately – rambling, about here, then you should probably keep up with this blog’s Facebook page.

To help things out, I’ve change the link on the Facebook icon (over on the right) to the blog’s Facebook page. I’m not hiding my personal Facebook page from anyone but I’m going to try to clear some of that stuff out and separate people I actually know and have met from the people who have randomly found me online. It’s nothing personal…actually, it is personal. I’m not sharing government secrets on Facebook but I would like a little more privacy where appropriate and knowing that people that are connected to me on Facebook are people I personally know and trust is important to me. You understand, right?

On a flashier note, I’ve updated the iPad functionality for both blogs with a cool cover image. Once you get past the cover image both blogs behave kind of like Flipboard and cover-flow apps like that. In case you don’t want to pull out your iPad or don’t have one yet, here are the cover images. Nothing new, but I’m proud of my basic photoshopping skills. (See below)

Smile!

Finally, I’ve created a Facebook page for my podcast, Just Talking. Lucky for me, you can pre-date status updates so the entire Just Talking timeline is full of all 124+ episodes. If you’ll allow a moment of pride, the timeline looks super sweet with all of those posts up there. Lucky for you, the early adopters weren’t spammed with all of the status updates as I linked each episode. I encourage you to follow the podcast on Facebook as I plan on using the survey tool to get a better idea of who my listeners are, what they like, what they don’t like, if they listen to other podcasts and what kind, and how they listen to my podcast. It’s a bit embarrassing to think I knew anything about how social media is supposed to work and yet I didn’t have my podcast on the most popular social network in the world. It’s a stunning oversight but one I plan to make up for. Somehow.

Now please, do not interpret this post as an attempt at “look at me!” or “me too!” -ness. This isn’t a popularity contest or a way to grow “numbers”. While I joke around about exercises in vanity, I know that numbers are not the key to this. If I ever get caught blogging or podcasting for the “goodies” first then please ask me to stop. This is about content and helping the people that want this content get it in the easiest way possible to them.

Just Talking

A million-bajillion people are on Facebook and I’d be a fool to expect my podcasting audience to grow without genuinely trying to reach as many people as possible. The feedback I receive makes my podcast stronger. It makes me work harder to produce something that I will be proud of and you will enjoy listening to. I need to have as many communication channels open as possible if I want to make this podcast something truly special.

As far as my blog goes, for some lucky reason reason I’ve built up an audience, maybe even a respectable reputation and occasionally people want to know what I have to say about a particular topic. I don’t know how it happened either but I don’t want to turn away from another chance to reach someone. With the staggering number of people being diagnosed with diabetes each day, it’s to everyone’s advantage to have our content as accessible as possible.

This content – stories of pain, stories of triumph, stories of successes, and stories of difficulties.

Every single blog post out there is a point of connection to someone who is scared and looking for answers, maybe even looking for hope. While we aren’t medical experts we still provide a valuable service to first-time readers: support. I got started down this blogging path after reading enough stories that drove home the point that I wasn’t alone with this disease. Now I’m just paying it forward. We all are.

So yea, for what it’s worth, I’m stepping my game up a bit. At the end of the day I think all of this nonsense will make both my blog and my podcast a little bit better. If I’m lucky, maybe that “better” will carry over on to me too.

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One thought on “Spring Cleaning”

Great post man. Definitely a lot of words for a Friday, but words that are meaningful. I love the idea of keeping things separate and being everywhere in all social networks so you can interact with as many people as possible. Awesome job.